“Nature is Hill’s pattern book. She transforms sparsely set countryside elements into concentrated configurations that heighten the experience of nature.â€
—James Nelson, Birmingham News
Bethanne Hill is a full-time artist whose work has appeared on the covers of numerous magazines, books, and CDs. Her work is displayed in Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina galleries and during seasonal festivals in the Southeast. All of her paintings are done in acrylic on wood, paper, or canvas in the carriage house behind her home.
As a young artist, Hill’s first great influence was primitive art. She was especially attracted to the bold outlines, patterns, and simplified shapes of Australian aboriginal art. Their “x-ray style†conveyed the power of the animals depicted and she was attracted to the way the artists filled in every inch of space. Her use of aboriginal style to portray rural scenery invites viewers to pay closer attention to the details. She claims that her “paintings are (her) stories, embellished in that great, Southern tradition.â€
Hill attended the Alabama School of Fine Arts from seventh through twelfth grade and earned a BFA in painting and sculpture from Birmingham-Southern College. She enjoys driving back roads and uses some of the strange and beautiful things she sees there as starting points for her work. She and her husband, artist Darius Hill, have three children and live in Birmingham, Alabama. |